US - The Millerdale Hutterite colony in South Dakota has made significant improvements in production on their 1,900-head hog operation after switching to the Hypor sow in 2015.

“You can’t compare the two sows - it is such a big difference,” says Millerdale Hutterite Colony hog producer George Junior. “It has made a big difference in the barn - the Hypor sows are less labour intensive.” Junior explains that the Hypor Large White and the Hypor Libra are docile sows that return to heat sooner than the other sows, and that provide enough milk for their entire litter.

“We decided to switch to the Hypor sows because our other sows did not have enough nipples to handle the pigs that they were having,” Junior explains. “Their underline was not evenly spaced.” The nipple placement on the Hypor sows made a “night and day difference.”

“We were surprised with how many pigs they could wean,” Junior says. “And they milk really well.”Hypor sows are known for their excellent milk production and for consistently producing litters with large numbers of uniform pigs.

“Bottom line—there are just more pigs out the door,” Junior says. He explains that his data shows that the Hypor sow weaned 3 or more pigs per year. “We had to cut back on sows because they were having so many pigs and weaning so many,” Junior says. “Which saved on feed and labour.” In addition to a higher weaning capacity, the colony also saw a difference in the number of sows that breed back. Hypor sows are developed to be lean, which helps them to show better heats and breed back faster than heavier sows.

“It is important to collect data on all those things (mating, farrowing, weaning) to make sure you are being as profitable as possible by maximizing efficiency in the barn,” Junior states. He explains that comparing data is vital to improving on-farm production. “If you don’t see the difference on paper then you won’t believe it.” The Millerdale colony has adopted Bio Hypor, which will allow them to produce their own replacement gilts using Hypor's great grandparent gilts. Bio Hypor is essentially a mini-nucleus farm that provides pork producers with fast genetic progress without the risk of bringing in live animals onto their operations.